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  Remote discovery and system architectureUSPTO Application #: 20060179124Title: Remote discovery and system architecture Abstract: Sending a discovery agent to a computing device determines the services provided by that first computing device. As a result, a first set of information is received from the agent that provides information indicative of the services provided by the computing device. That information can then be compared to other information, either from the same computing device at a different point in time, or from a second computing device. The other information is indicative of services performed by that computing device at a different point in time or the second computing device. From that, services provided by the computing device that were previously different on the first computing device or that are not available on the second computing device can be determined. (end of abstract)
Agent: Mark T Starr Unisys Corporation - Blue Bell, PA, US Inventors: Joseph Peter Stefaniak, Eugene Otto Mutschler, Jonathan Virgil Ziebell, Mahmood Mac Vazehgoo, Robert Mathews Harrison, Jeffrey Allen Moore, Charles Eugene Steel USPTO Applicaton #: 20060179124 - Class: 709219000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Electrical Computers And Digital Processing Systems: Multicomputer Data Transferring, Remote Data Accessing, Accessing A Remote Server The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060179124. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/455,749, filed Mar. 19, 2003, "discovery and Analysis of System and Database Inventories for Server Consolidation," which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. COPYRIGHT NOTICE AND PERMISSION [0002] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document may contain material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever. The following notice shall apply to this document: Copyright.COPYRGT. 2004, Unisys Corp. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0003] The present invention relates to the field of computing systems and, more specifically, to systems and methods for server consolidation. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0004] As technology has become more prevalent in business organizations, organizations have created server farms in an ad hoc fashion. For instance, as a new application become available or needed, organizations often add a new server to provide the computing support for that application. Often times, the server would have enough computing power only to run that particular application. Such ad hoc server farms become an unwieldy combination of overlapping applications, multiple versions of the same application, redundant data storage and disparate computing power. The result is duplicate applications and incompatible hardware. In some cases, businesses may not even have a complete understanding of their computing inventory. [0005] Ideally, an organization's server farms would be a more homogeneous group of servers and applications with applications adequately balanced across the servers in the most efficient and effective way. But more typically, companies have an eclectic mix of computing products and hardware. The result is not only an inefficient computing system but also a burdened staff that needs to be proficient on all of the various hardware and software applications. To confront the issue, organizations are consolidating their applications onto fewer, larger servers that have increased availability and scalability. [0006] Server consolidation can provide significant benefits, including a reduction in the total cost of ownership, creation of a streamlined, manageable operation, increased system reliability, increased capacity utilization, and so on. Server consolidation can give an enterprise the ability to scale processing and storage capacity without adding physical devices or subsystems, as well as the flexibility to partition and allocate resources as needed. Server consolidation can lead to a standardized computing environment, reducing the number of platforms, consolidating software products and system interfaces, and centralizing operation and systems management procedures. The result is a reduction in staff training. [0007] Server consolidation generally can be physical or logical consolidation. Physical consolidation extends a system's scalability and logical consolidation migrates multiple applications or databases into a centralized application or database. In addition, Physical consolidation can thought of as two major sub-categories, server consolidation and storage consolidation. Physical server consolidation takes a number of servers and places their operating system instances into partitions or domains of a larger server. Storage consolidation combines data from different sources into a single repository and format. Storage is one of today's most important asset-procurement considerations in the data center, with costs that can often rival or exceed server costs. Since the economic life of the storage exceeds that of most servers, today's storage decisions will affect operations for years to come. [0008] For example, if a given server has excess capacity additional applications can be moved to that server resulting in a reduction of the overall physical number of servers. Moreover, organizations typically configure systems to run at 50 to 60% utilization, leaving the extra capacity for peak workloads. If this unused capacity on various servers is consider for the number of servers in a large server farm, the amount of wasted resources can be enormous. By consolidating servers, the amount of unused capacity drops as dramatically as the number of servers no longer needed. [0009] The subject patent document describes various methods and systems for automating aspects of server consolidation. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0010] The above-mentioned features are provided by a system and method for consolidating services performed on a plurality of computing devices such as servers in a server farm. The system and methods operate by sending a discovery agent to one of the computing devices, a first computing device, to determine the services provided by that first computing device. As a result, a first set of information is received from the agent that provides information indicative of the services provided by the first computing devices. That information can then be compared to other information, either from the same computing device at a different point in time, or from a second computing device. The other information is indicative of services performed by that first computing device at a different point in time or the second computing device. From that, services provided by the first computing device that were previously different on the first computing device or that are not available on the second computing device can be determined. [0011] As a result, the services performed by the first or second computing device can be changed to include the at least one service. In the case of the second computing device, the service can then be provided by the second computing device and removed from the first computing device. [0012] The discovery agent comprises computer executable instructions for determining the system, process and/or database characteristics of the first computing device and is executed by way of a remote procedure call. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0013] A consolidation system and method in accordance with the invention is further described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: [0014] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary diagram of a server farm consolidation; [0015] FIG. 2 illustrates further detail of a consolidation system such as would be used in the consolidation in FIG. 1; [0016] FIG. 3 is an exemplary user interface for invoking the discovery aspect of the server consolidation; [0017] FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating aspects of the discovery deployment aspect of the system; [0018] FIG. 5 is a high level flow diagram that illustrates the overall server consolidation; Continue reading... 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